EU - Daylight saving time: European Parliament votes for review of daylight saving time

European Parliament members voted 384 to 153 in a non-binding resolution on Thursday to urge the European Commission to carry out a "thorough assessment" of the daylight saving time (DST) arrangements for summer time and, if necessary "come up with a proposal for its revision."

"Numerous studies have failed to reach a conclusive outcome, but indicate negative effects on human health," the members of European Parliament wrote in their proposal.

For decades, Europeans have gone through a twice-yearly ritual of changing their clocks to make the most of natural daylight. Current EU law came into force in 2001 and set a bloc-wide date and time for the start and end of summer.

In late March each year clocks go forward by 60 minutes and in late October they are put back again.

Ireland's MEP Sean Kelly has been working to stop moving the time at the committee level in the European Parliament.

"We think that there's no need to change the clocks," he said. "It came in during World War One, it was supposed to be for energy savings — the indications are that there are very few energy savings, if any — and there are an awful lot of disadvantages to both human beings and animals that make it outdated at this point. We're working to try and end it."

Read more: European Parliament votes for review of daylight saving time | News | DW | 08.02.2018

Christianity: Broad Coalition of US Evangelicals Release 'Nashville Statement' on Human Sexuality, Identity

A broad coalition of US Christian leaders, including J. I. Packer and Francis Chan, have released a statement articulating God's design for human identity as male and female. Such a statement is needed, they say, in order to resist the spirit of the age and for the church to maintain its counter-cultural witness in a world that seems "bent on ruin."

The Nashville Statement, which was sponsored by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood and the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission was published Tuesday. The document contains a preamble and 14 articles responding to the current realities in the Western world regarding the many messages swirling in society and even in some churches about sexuality, particularly homosexuality and transgenderism, which have come to the fore in both politics and church life in recent years.
 
Note EU-Digest:  in relation to the potential impact of the Nashville Statement also read:  "Take a deep breath: The Nashville statement won't change anything." by  Jonathan Merrit.

Read more: Broad Coalition of Evangelicals Releases 'Nashville Statement' on Human Sexuality, Identity

Life resuscitation: Animal brought back to life from 30-year deep freeze

More than one human -- deceased baseball star Ted Williams, for example -- has wondered whether freezing your body when you die might allow you to be revived in the future.

Perhaps Japanese scientists are beginning to find an answer.

As the Wall Street Journal reports, researchers at Japan's National Institute of Polar Research have resuscitated two tardigrades -- sometimes known as waterbears or moss piglets -- from a 30.5-year deep freeze.

It seems odd that animal-namers can't decide whether these tiny eight-legged creatures look more like pigs or bears. I'm going with waterbears.

The researchers first collected two waterbears in 1983 from an Antarctican moss sample. They then stored them at minus-20 degrees C (roughly minus-4 degrees Fahrenheit). They defrosted them in 2014.

After defrosting, it took one of the waterbears 29 days to return to what the researchers described as a normal condition. The other died after 20 days.

Perhaps when they do, we will learn something about the prospects for reviving humans. Or perhaps waterbears are simply special beings. And we're not.

Read more: Animal brought back to life from 30-year deep freeze